$5 T5 Short throw

Here's a $5 eb@y Ford shifter I modified for a hybrid (Camaro front end, S-10 tailshaft) T5 ******. I took an old pvc bread cutting board, doubled the thickness, then drilled the shifter the same amount. I need to tack weld it together as one of the soft metal tabs broke off. The bolt holes of course fit my long B+M shifter arm.



The Ford plate is a larger rectangle, the Chevy a smaller square. The shifter itself was brand new and only 5 bucks so that's why I took the trouble to relocate the holes. Making the short throw shifter...by raising the plate ~ 1", the throw is 4" at a one foot height off the floor, it will be a bit more for my taller B+M shifter.

 

Okay, you installed a spacer and...

 

I realize this has been done before (making a short throw shifter), I believe I hit send before I had the whole deal written up, mea culpa. My objective was to show others a cheap way of accomplishing a more favorable shift length.

 

what did you do to extend the ball?

 

X2

Frank

 

Short answer, "You drill a new hole". White pencil is pointing to the orig. pivot hole location, blue pencil pointing to the new location with the pivot pin installed. By raising the platform with the white plastic spacer the same amount, the short shift is achieved.

 

I am soo going to go and bolt some square tube to my shifter now.That is sooo old skool!

 

Great job and great idea. Two thumbs up!!

 

Yes, funny. I needed to find out how long my shift throw would be...didn't have a spare shifter so I drilled a square tube. You want to paint it flat black and pin stripe it for me?

 

good tip.

 

Moving the pivot hole makes so much more sense than cutting and re-welding the shaft with a spacer.
Nice!

 

Thanks for the feedback. The short throw's been done before by others, but I couldn't resist buying the new Ford shifter to see if I could get it to work on the S-10 tailhousing.

 

dang..I didn't have to cut and weld on my shift ball....oh well it's done already so I guess I'll leave it!
Thanks for the tip!

 

Is this worth enough to link to the T5 page?

 

Are you going to fill the old hole with a welded-in pin or something to keep the shifter from trying to crack or bend there?

 

Shifting a T5 doesn't require much force and as a daily driver year round only vehicle of a '49 Chevy 1/2 T I'm not a 'slam shifting guy' I'm a 'get there and back in style' kind of guy. I think it will easily hold up being it is good quality steel, although a weld would remove all doubt.